Marriage is avoided between persons having the same surname and
those within six degrees of descent from a common ancestor whether
male or female. The marriage ceremony generally resembles that of
the Brahmans. Before the wedding the bridegroom's father prepares an
image of Siva from rice and til-seed, [136] covers it with a cloth and
sends it to the bride's house. In return her mother prepares and sends
back a similar image of Gauri, Siva's consort. Girls are married as
infants, and when a woman arrives at adolescence the following ritual
is observed: She goes to her husband's house and is there secluded for
three or four days while her impurity lasts. On its termination she is
bathed and clothed in a green dress and yellow choli or breast-cloth,
and seated in a gaily decked wooden frame. Her lap is filled with wheat
and a cocoanut, and her female friends and relatives and father and
father-in-law give her presents of sweets and clothes. This is known
as the Shantik ceremony and is practised by the higher castes in the
Maratha country. It may continue for as long as sixteen days. Finally,
on an auspicious day the bride and bridegroom are given delicate food
and dressed in new clothes. The fire sacrifice is offered and they
are taken into a room where a bed, the gift of the bride's parents,
has been prepared for them, and left to consummate the marriage. This
is known as Garbhadhan. Next day the bride's parents give new clothes
and a feast to the bridegroom's family; this feast is known as Godai,
and after giving it the bride's parents may eat at their daughter's
house. A girl seduced by a man of the caste may be properly married
to him after her parents have performed Prayaschit or atonement. But
if she has a child out of wedlock, he is relegated to the Vidur or
illegitimate group. Even if a girl be seduced by a stranger, provided
he be of higher or equal caste, as the Kunbis and Marathas, she may
be taken back into the community.